Conquest doesn’t always come by way of direct invasion and occupation; subtler methods, such as sustained psychological and spiritual warfare, have proven even more successful at suborning target populations. Vladimir Mikhailovich Chernyshev, head of the Faculty of the History of Western Confessions and lecturer at the Kiev Spiritual Academy, answers questions from the publication The World and We regarding anti-traditional sectarian religious movements in Ukraine and how they function as agents in a wider geopolitical game. Translated by Mark Hackard.

If we are to speak of totalitarian cults in general, then yes, this is undoubtedly a global geopolitical project. Therefore we can’t even talk about one individual sect. The entire spectrum of totalitarian, destructive cults and so-called “new religious movements” are a global project to destroy our Slavic mentality and culture. And in the 1990s, when all political…